LAW OFFICE COMPUTING

April 2001

Winton Woods

 

The Email Etiquette

The Internet is everywhere and is causing profound changes in the way we gather and exchange information. If you are not using the Internet on a daily basis you are missing out on a tremendous resource. As very fast broadband connections become more available and cost less, the Internet will become an integral part of every office and home. There are now nearly 100 million Internet users with about 10% of them using broadband. The cost of bandwidth dropped 50% last year and will probably drop at least that much this year. Lower cost means greater use. Since Broadband connections are “persistent” or always on connections you can use the Internet much more easily than you can when you need make sure a phone line is available to allow you dial up with your modem. That ease of use is the key to expansion of the Internet.

Broadband makes every aspect of your net experience better but for lawyers it creates an opportunity to actually practice law in a virtual space. I know many lawyers now who spend a substantial part of their productive time working over the Internet. Some spend a day or two a week working in that fashion. Some spend most of their time that way. A few, like our current Bar President, actually run their offices over the Internet. I have been doing that for years and I can hardly imagine having to go back to the days of daily commutes.

The primary vehicle for virtual law practice is Internet Mail or email.  Email allows you communicate with your clients and colleagues in a virtual space that is not confined by time or geography. I have been working with a company in Australia and the 12-hour time difference disappears in the online office. Email has certain rules of etiquette, however. Violation of these rules may be 21st century equivalent of slurping your milk and eating peas with a knife dipped in butter. If you are new to email you need to pay attention to the rules. I have collected some of the most important rules for Professionals below.

 

TEN RULES OF ETIQUETTE FOR PROFESSIONAL EMAIL

  1. Consider carefully what you write; it's a permanent record and can be sent to others with a mouse click. Always set your program to delay sending mail for a few minutes so you can go back and review what you wrote. Always double check your professional messages or have somebody do it for you. Typos are common in email but you may still be judged by the care demonstrated in your message. DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS unless you intend to “shout” or emphasize a particular word or phrase.
  2. Write succinctly. Try to keep your message to a single screen so that your reader does not have to scroll through it. Limit line length to 65-70 characters across. Some of the older e-mail programs will wrap the text at wrong points or not wrap it at all and thus make it very hard to read.
  3. Don't attach large files like document images, photographs or video clips without getting permission from your recipient first. Remember that many people download their mail onto laptop computers over very slow connections. A big attachment can take many minutes to download and really disrupt the work of the recipient.
  4. Many modern email programs allow you to compose your message in HTML format, which allows a variety of fonts and colors. Many email recipients don’t want messages in that format for a variety of reasons. Recently the infamous KAK virus was widely distributed using HTML email and most people who got it changed their email format to plain text. If you use Outlook or similar high-end email applications you can select how different contacts in your contact list want their mail sent. 
  5. Don't send entire web pages unless it is important to do so. Internet Explorer allows you to just send the URL in a clickable form. Sometimes the text is all that important and you can cut and paste from the web to an email in plain text form. 
  6. Write descriptive subject lines. Many people who get lots of email will only open messages that appear to be useful to them. ALWAYS use a new subject line when you are changing the subject. Many people just go to the last message they got from the person they are sending to and hit “Reply” which invokes the subject line of the original message and is thus confusing. It takes only a few more seconds to use your contact list and send a new message or simply erase the subject line and replace it with something new. In some collaboration environments the subject line is the vehicle for organizing mail into threads, or set of email relating to a particular subject. In those case copying the original subject matter line is useful.
  7. Don't quote back an entire message when only responding to one or two points. Delete the excess and make a note at the very top before starting the quotes. Make sure, however, that you do not delete the substance necessary to understand the original message. NEVER, NEVER respond without identifying the original message in some way. Some e-mail programs are automatically set up to quote the original message when replying and put you at the end of that message set off with brackets or >> marks. If you really want to get your message read put it at the top of the page. Outlook 2000 allows you to actually interlineate the message with your comments proceeded by a bracketed message like [Louie says:] ----------.
  8. When forwarding messages, put your comments at the top of the message so the recipient will not be confused.
  9. Use acronyms like BTW (by the way) or IMHO (in my humble opinion) with great care. Not everyone is experienced with this jargon and some even take offense at it because they don’t understand what CMIIW means. I have put a list of the most popular acronyms below so you can understand what others may be saying.

 

  1. Emoticons (smileys) are often used to convey attitude or feelings.  :-) means a smile or a grin. They are lighthearted and fun but their place in professional emails is questionable. Even if you feel they are appropriate in a particular context use them sparingly. Some of the most popular Emoticons are listed at: http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/emoticons.html

 

 

Here are some of the most common acronyms:

2L8    too late
AAMOF    as a matter of fact
AFAIK    as far as I know
B4N    bye for now
BTW    by the way, correct me if I'm wrong
CUL    see you later
FWIW    for what it's worth
IAC    in any case
IKWUM    I know what you mean
IMHO    in my humble opinion
IOW    in other words
KWIM    know what I mean
LOL    laughing out loud
NBIF    no basis in fact
OTOH    on the other hand
ROTFL    rolling on the floor laughing
RTFM    read the f…… manual
SIG    special interest group
TIA    thanks in advance
TNX    thanks
TTFN    ta ta for now